Britain must spend more on roads as part of its plans for net zero, ministers have been told.
The Government’s infrastructure tsar said more money should be devoted to building roads and called for less of a focus on pushing people to travel by train.
Sir John Armitt told the Commons transport select committee that the Government ought to face the reality that “the bulk of the population is totally reliant on road”.
Sir John, who is chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), which advises the Treasury, said ministers should consider funding dozens of highway projects up and down the country as a result, rather than seeking to funnel road users on to the railways.
He said: “The continued decarbonisation of road transport removes one of the traditional arguments that you should use a lot more rail because rail is less polluting than roads.
“That will not be the case in the future. I don’t see any great significant growth in rail, and there will be continued pressure on the roads.”
More than 80pc of trips over 10 miles are made in a car or van, according to an NIC study. Rail accounts for just 10pc of such journeys.
While road traffic had recovered to pre-Covid levels by 2023, rail passenger numbers are still down compared to pre-pandemic levels.
A plan for decarbonising the transport system, drawn up by the former Conservative government in 2021, said Britain must “avoid a car-led recovery” and instead seek to encourage more people to use public transport, cycle or walk.
Grant Shapps, the then transport secretary, wrote in the report: “We cannot pile ever more cars, delivery vans and taxis on to the same congested urban roads. That would be difficult for the roads, let alone the planet, to tolerate.”
However, Sir John told MPs: “The vast majority of journeys are made by car. I don’t think people are going to leap out of their cars on to the trains, particularly if you are going on holiday with the family and you’ve got all the luggage.”
Sir John, a former chief executive of Network Rail and chairman of bus and train operator National Express, urged the Government to “ensure that we maintain a proper level of financial support for improving our road network”.
Rather than building new motorways, Sir John said the Department for Transport needed to direct spending towards the more than 100 road “pinch points” and corridors in need of improvement that have been identified by the NIC.
He said: “There are a lot of them, and they won’t all be affordable. But the department needs to make some assessments on the economic benefits of each of those and decide which ones can be afforded in a reasonable period.”
Sir John said rail investment should be narrowly focused on boosting east-west connectivity in the Midlands and between Liverpool and Hull via Manchester and Leeds.
Capacity issues between Birmingham and Manchester will also need to be addressed following the scrapping of the northern leg of HS2, he added.
The Campaign for Better Transport (CBT), a non-governmental organisation, has called for the Government to reintroduce trams across the country to help meet Britain’s net zero goals.
Capacity issues between Birmingham and Manchester will also need to be addressed following the scrapping of the northern leg of HS2, he added.
The Campaign for Better Transport (CBT), a non-governmental organisation, has called for the Government to reintroduce trams across the country to help meet Britain’s net zero goals.
However, Sir John, who also led the infrastructure delivery authority for the 2012 Olympics in London, dismissed this argument on the grounds of cost.
He said: “There is always a desire to have a tram system but trams are very expensive and the infrastructure for them is expensive.”
Sir John cited the example of Edinburgh Trams, which came in five years late and £400m over budget.
He said: “You can’t build what you can’t afford. At the end of the day, these are things that are going to have to be paid for by the public.”
The NIC has said that spending on new tram systems, or the expansion of existing ones, would be justified only in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Bristol.
Buses with dedicated lanes represent a cheaper and more flexible alternative, he said.
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